All the barrier lakes (or quake lakes) formed after the massive May 12 earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan Province are "under control" but the situation is still grim, said Vice Minister of Water Resources E Jingping on Sunday.

Heavy rains forecast for the area over the next three days are a major threat, as the additional water build-up in the lakes could cause the landslide barriers that formed them to burst, flooding nearby areas, E told a news conference.

The 8.0-magnitude earthquake, aftershocks and landslides created 35 such lakes, with 34 in Sichuan, posing a new danger to more than 700,000 of the people who survived the deadly quake, the vice minister said.

E admitted that these lakes posed a challenge for the government's efforts to prevent secondary disasters in the quake regions.

The ministry has drawn up evacuation plans for communities downstream of the 19 quake lakes at high risk of bursting, E said. He did not provide an estimate of the people who might have to move.

The massive earthquake also left 69 reservoirs in danger of collapse in Sichuan. Another 310 reservoirs were in "highly dangerous" situations and more than 1,400 posed a moderate risk, according to E.

The quake also damaged 803 hydropower stations, including 481 in Sichuan.

(Xinhua News Agency May 25, 2008)